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"War and Peas"

Why did humans develop hierarchies? Why couldn’t everyone stay equal to everyone else in the group? Brian Klass looks into the commonly accepted theories on the topic in his book, Corruptible .   The first theory is the one most of us are familiar with. Once humans discovered agriculture, they began to have surpluses. By definition, some people had more surplus than others – inequality had gotten started. Further, agricultural surpluses in turn required storage systems, accounting systems (to maintain records of who had how much excess), and protection systems (to protect the surplus) all of which led to specialists in different roles – hierarchies had begun. Klass calls this the “peas theory” (pun intended) – it all began with agriculture.   The other theory is more nuanced. Assume two groups of hunter-gatherers. One lived in the Amazon basin where food was plentiful in all directions. If someone forced you off your land, no big deal – you just moved somewhere else an...
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On Power and Corruption

Brian Klass’ book, Corruptible , has many interesting and, at times, counter-intuitive points on the fact that people in power seem to be (become?) corrupt.   For one, he says people in power often have to make repeated decisions in scenarios where there are no good choices. But if all choices are bad, how does one make a decision, and not let the bad aspect of the decision not haunt one? “(One way is to) disregard compassion and focus on hard-nosed costs and benefits.” Here’s Klass point with all this. Does power attract people who have that mindset to begin with? Do kinder folks avoid power since they don’t have the stomach to pick from among a list of “unbearable moral choices”?   Two, he says, enforcement matters. The same set of people behave differently when the enforcement is strict v/s lax. Think of how the same Indian can behave when in Singapore v/s India.   Three, the system in which the person operates matters: “A decent person inheriting a b...
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"Thucydides Trap"

America’s erratic actions and constant policy shifts make a lot more sense when viewed from the lens of what Noah Millman calls the “Thucydides trap”. “(It refers to) a situation where a rising power and an established power facing a possible power transition each make moves that, while individually rational, ultimately lead to a catastrophic war that proves ruinous to both powers’ fortunes.”   With Obama, America tried a “pivot to Asia” approach to counter China, i.e., increase the focus on China and its neighbouring countries, reduce the focus elsewhere (The pivot to Asia is why the US didn’t do much/anything when Russia invaded Crimea in 2016; why Obama signed the nuclear deal with Iran). Obama was being pragmatic – it was clear that the assumption that the only road to economic prosperity went hand in hand with democracy and other Western systems was not true. China was prospering without democracy; and showing signs of not wanting to be part of a system dominated by the...
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Wheat or Rice?

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Wheat or rice? Here’s how the world production looks on that question, writes Tomas Pueyo (Red = rice; Green = wheat): A key point here: rice and wheat are not harvested in the same places. It is an either/or option. The reason for the distribution? “Rice grows in hot, wet, flat, floodable areas, whereas wheat prefers cooler, drier, better drained areas.”   Another consequential point here: “Rice generates twice as many calories per unit of area. This means that rice nourishes families on half the land that wheat requires. Which means population density in rice areas can be twice as high as in wheat areas.” This explains why (see map above) coastal China, a huge part of the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia are so densely populated.   Rice cultivation requires a lot more work than wheat: “Preparing paddies, raising seedlings in nurseries, transplanting every single seedling by hand into flooded fields, managing water, pumping it, weeding, harvesting, and thr...
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Chinese Homework Apps in the US

Just like TikTok took the US (and world) by storm, Chinese education apps like Gauth and Question.AI have taken the American education app sector, writes Lily Ottinger. Both apps say they can solve problems in “all school subjects”.   Is this encouraging cheating, where kids stop doing homework? And what do equivalent Chinese apps offer in China? Well, for one, the apps for China and the rest of the world are different, even when made by the same Chinese company. Give the two apps (Chinese and non-Chinese), say, an integration question to solve and the Chinese one will list the steps to solve it while the American one will tell the answer, then show the steps. The Chinese one will give hints and tricks to solve such questions, the American ones won’t (unless you upgrade to the paid version). The Chinese apps also graph the problem to make it easier to visualize.   What could be the reasons for the differences? Well, Western education places more emphasis on homework, ...
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A Trip to a PSU Bank After Ages

My wife has been saying for a (long, long) while that we should go re-activate or close or pull out our money in PPF and SBI. We haven’t transacted in either for a long time, so it was almost certain they were dormant. We don’t expect the process to be easy or clear, but finally we decided to initiate the process.   We to the nearby SBI branch. We went in, saw a token generator, and went to get one. It wasn’t working. Ok, so you’d expect a queue somewhere, right? Except the only queue was in a counter to open new accounts! Weirdly, lots of people were seated with no apparent hurry or urgency. Waiting (for what? For who?), filling forms, no urgency, no impatience, no irritation… it was almost surreal.   My wife then saw an employee walking by and asked him how to get a token. He gave a wide smile, you know the kind rural folks give urban denizens when they come to a village… Oh, you poor ignorant people. Then he said, “The token system doesn’t work” and helpfully added,...
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Evolution of Language #2: One Explanation

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In the previous blog in the series, we saw all the difficulties in explaining the evolution of language. Now to one possible explanation, from A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett.   The book goes into a seemingly unrelated topic, altruism . In all species, one can see altruism towards kin (children, siblings etc). Many species also show reciprocal altruism (you scratch my back, I scratch yours). Humans go far, far beyond both. People help strangers without any expectation. They give to charity and do philanthropy. At the same time, as a species, we can be outrageously cruel . Only humans do genocide, wipe out entire groups.   Back to the topic of language: “It is not a coincidence that our language, our unparalleled altruism and our unmatched cruelty all emerged together in evolution: all three were, in fact, merely different features of the same evolutionary feedback loop.” He elaborates.   Language may have started off as intended only for ...
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